Each week, our German correspondent slices and dices the latest rumblings, news, and quick-hit driving impressions from the other side of the pond. His byline may say Jens Meiners, but we simply call him . . . the Continental.

The Essen motor show is underway, and it’s where the Opel Adam R2 rally car made its race-spec debut—a concept was shown at the Geneva show this past March. There are a number of fascinating concepts and tuning cars from various carmakers and tuners this week. The Essen motor show is the German equivalent of SEMA—loud and a little tacky, but a lot of fun. I will have a wrap-up later in the week.

Another vehicle shown in Essen is the Opel Monza concept, which made its first appearance at the Frankfurt auto show in September. It’s pictured below next to a face-lifted version of the classic Opel Monza, which was launched in 1977. If you don’t spot any similarities, that’s intentional. Designer Friedhelm Engler says, “The Monza A is just a namesake, a reference. While we had it with us in the studio, we didn’t do a retro design, and we didn’t cook or rehash any old ideas.” And he adds that the designer of the original Monza, George Gallion, “never looked back either.” I like that attitude. Gallion, by the way, designed two fantastic sports cars outside of Opel: the Bitter CD and the Bitter SC, two GM-powered classic sports cars of the 1970s and ’80s.

An Imposition

The automobile fulfills a lot of useful functions in society. One of them is that of scapegoat. It’s denounced as a major cause of climate change, and it’s punished for emitting carbon dioxide. There is an ongoing debate in the European Union about the extent of fleet-consumption requirements. The distorted consumption and emissions figures for plug-in hybrids and electrics will give a massive push to these vehicles on the market. Even so, it will be difficult to meet some of the targets proposed for 2025 and beyond. Politicians are contemplating consumption figures of 78 mpg for gasoline cars and 90 mpg for diesels—as a fleet average.

Reaching these targets will require massive investment. It is interesting to compare the cost of lowering CO2 emissions from cars to the cost of CO2 on the artificial, politically created “market” for CO2. The cost of lowering CO2 emissions from cars to the desired extent exceeds the cost on the “CO2 market” by a factor of 50 to 100. So much for savviness in “saving the climate.”

The Swiss Are Fed Up

But there is good news, too. Switzerland has just rejected a government-driven motion to increase the cost of using its freeway system from 40 Swiss francs annually to a whopping 100. This despite threats by the government that hundreds of miles of roads would not be built. But there is a better idea to get these roads built: Another motion is expected to be put on the ballot soon that will require politicians to spend the money taken from motorists exclusively on road improvements. Things are looking good for the “milking-cow initiative.”

It happened silently a while ago: The manual transmission has been dropped from the order sheets of the BMW 550i and 650i for the 2014 model year. The Bavarian automaker had offered the manual on its V-8 models only for the U.S. market—the stick has long vanished in other markets, including Germany. In Europe, BMW still offers a manual, albeit on the weakest versions of the 5-series as an economy choice. In the U.S., and nowhere else, the manual is still offered on the M5 and the M6. I hope it will stay for a very long time.

BMW is launching performance options for its 2-series; the photo above highlights the newly available appearance package. The 2-series will be a very worthy successor of the 1-series coupe, perhaps now the essence of the brand.

Saabs Roll

NEVS (National Electric Vehicles Sweden), the company that plans to bring an electrified version of the Saab 9-3 to market, is restarting production. But the first car to roll off the line won’t be an electric—it will be a 9-3 Aero with a gasoline engine. Next year, the model is supposed to launch with an electric powertrain. It is a risky proposition: The 9-3 is more than a decade old and the road for electric vehicles has been rough.